Tap,
tap. (Sound of a microphone being thumped.) “Is this thing still on?”
Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything. There hasn’t been anything to write
about. I’ve been posting a bunch stuff here
for a while that I’ve scanned. I have a whole
bunch more, but I haven’t been able to work on getting it ready to post. The good news is that I still have a job, but
I’ve had to start coming in a lot earlier.
I haven’t been able to work on extra circular stuff during the day like
I was before at night.
This won’t be my usual Memorial Day post. There was only one sporting event to cover
this time. There was no getting up
before dawn to watch Monaco and
hectically writing like a maniac to cover all of the racing and baseball this
year. This also won’t be much of a race
recap either. (Well, no change in
quality control there.) My heart just
wasn’t in to do anything other than watch.
Note taking wasn’t going to happen.
So, this is really just a spring recap heading into summer.
Where did we leave off?
Last time, I’d recapped NM State Men’s and Women’s Basketball seasons. Aggie Baseball and Softball’s seasons were canceled.
Nick Gonzales got a nice
pre-draft write up in Sports Illustrated. I also previewed a currently
non-existent MLB season. Since then (actually, just this Saturday in a
car service waiting room), I got to read SI’s
Baseball preview, which I never found in the bookstore before it was closed
down. Too bad, the issue was pretty
entertaining, especially the 2030 sidebars looking into the future (which I
embarrassingly didn’t understand at first because I hadn’t read the title and
thought they were mis-talking about current day baseball). I did buy a pack of Opening Day baseball
cards. That was some wishful
thinking. If MLB’s owners and players
can’t get their act together to play this year, you can bet I’ll have something
to say about it.
I have watched some baseball in the interim. I’ve seen several classic replay games on TV
and over the Internet. I’ve even watched
a couple of simulated games, including a fun Dodger/Giant all-time all-star game played at the Polo Grounds. I found out Willy Mays’ famous catch there was made at about 460’ from home
plate in that cavernous centerfield making it even more spectacular. Also, the bullpens were in the outfield and
were apparently in play.
My new work hours have allowed me to watch WWE on Fox on Fridays at home. I’ve
been able to see two of my favorites, Sasha
Banks and Alexa Bliss. (The guys and the other women are okay,
too.) Professional wrestling is a sport
you’d think would have to have a crowd in order to be entertaining. I’m sure the wrestlers miss the fans and the
big arenas, but they have been consummate pros being as over-the-top as ever. It’s not as good without a crowd, but it’s
been entertaining for what’s being presented.
Fox has shown a few classic NASCAR races. It’s been
interesting watching how the rules and cars have changed over the years. One older race was somewhat horrifying, as
cars made full speed green flag pit stops.
The actual gem of this impromptu offseason has been, without a doubt,
NASCAR’s iRacing shows. There has been a level of sheer fun and joy with
these computer races amongst the competitors.
Jeff Gordon and Clint Boywer need to take their comedy
act on the road. Admittedly, this
virtual racing has had real world consequences for Kyle Larson and Bubba
Wallace (which I don’t want to get into discussing), but it’s probably good
for NASCAR that they went back to real racing before people starting preferring
the iRacing.
NASCAR’s first race back last week was at the venerable Darlington track. I watched the race with dad and Ron came
over. We all had a good time and it was
a good race. As I thought, the drivers
really didn’t quite miss the crowd until Kevin
Harvick won and remarked in his interview that it was dead quiet. NASCAR has run some more races since on a
compressed schedule, but I’ve missed them since they were on cable. One cool revelation was the coverage’s use a
drone camera, which has provided some tremendous shots of the action and the
track. I hope this doesn’t put the blimp
out of business.
That brings us to today, Sunday of Memorial Day
weekend. There was no F1, so no waking up early or having to
worry about having the race spoiled.
(Hint: the guy leading after the first corner, Ste. Devote, is probably
going to win.) There was no Indy 500. Instead, NBC
was showing a replay of last year’s race with driver commentary and a
retrospective of the history of the race, I think. I didn’t watch. It was too painful. The race might happen later in the year. They have to have fans for Indy; otherwise it
wouldn’t be the same race.
I was over at dad’s and we watched a few episodes of The Pacific while waiting for NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600. That was rather appropriate for the
holiday. I’ll be honest, this race
usually gets a short shrift from me in Memorial Day coverage. It takes forever and normally isn’t that
great. It’s kind of an afterthought in
motor sports this weekend altogether.
Monaco is a lousy race, but glamorous.
Indy has all the drama. Charlotte
is just sort of endless, like too much dessert after a good meal.
There wasn’t a prerace, though I thought I saw one
scheduled. There were pre-race
ceremonies. They got to go racing for
about a half hour before rain halted the action. I’d been kind of expecting this and ended up
going home. Thankfully, the race did
restart about an hour later.
Today, I had little in the way of distractions in the
evening, so I was nearly forced to watch the race. The racing turned out to be pretty good. After what should have been the final pit
stop, Chase Elliott got ahead of Brad Kesolowski and cruised to an easy
victory . . . except that there was an accident with two laps to go. Chase pitted, while most of the other leaders
didn’t. This left Brad and Jimmie Johnson up front fighting for
the win under a green/white/checkers.
Brad took it, but seemed to feel a bit bad for Chase, who finished
third. Chase, who’d gotten punted out of
a possible win last week by Kyle Busch,
was actually consoled by him afterward.
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